Elon Musk’s ‘Teslas in Tunnels’ Las Vegas Project Still Running, And Here’s The First Station
The first passenger station in the “Vegas Loop” network of vehicle tunnels being built by Elon Musk’s Boring Company was unveiled Thursday. The station is located below Resorts World Las Vegas, the first in an expected 55 stops along 29 miles of tunnels.
The Boring Company already operates a small version of this “Teslas in Tunnels” system under the Las Vegas Convention Center, which opened in early 2021 and includes two 0.8-mile tunnels. After that, Musk’s startup proposed a massive citywide expansion that was finally approved by Clark County officials last year. The system uses Model X and Y human-operated vehicles to carry passengers, despite Musk’s previous statements about using sleds to transport cars through the tunnels.
Named Vegas Loop, passengers can hitchhike in Teslas to and from places such as the hotel casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, the city’s new soccer stadium, the Las Vegas Convention Center, and McCarran International Airport. The Resorts World Casino station is the first station to open. The company recently received unanimous approval to expand its Vegas Loop project to include stops at landmarks such as the Stratosphere and Fremont Street.
“Today marks a landmark moment not only for our resort, but also for Las Vegas,” said Scott Sibella, president of Resorts World Las Vegas, in a statement. “Our passenger station will make visiting our resort from the Las Vegas Convention Center easier than ever, ultimately connecting us to key destinations in the city.”
Clark County has claimed that as many as 57,000 passengers per hour will be able to travel through the tunnel system, and no taxpayers’ money will be spent building it. The Boring Company previously said it would foot the bill for the construction of the main tunnels, but planned to ask hotel casinos or other companies that want a station to pay for those construction costs.
The Boring Company has been building a system of tunnels under Las Vegas for a few years now. In that time, Musk’s ambitions for what a tunnel-based transportation system would look like have changed. He once envisioned using sleds to move cars from the surface to the tunnels and back, as well as pods that would favor cyclists and pedestrians. Some of the company’s attempts to dig in other places have failed, such as in Chicago, Los Angeles and the Northeast Corridor†
